Spectrum Scam snippets

The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed criminal charges against the country’s two largest mobile phone firms — Bharti Airtel and Vodafone — for allegedly obtaining excess spectrum in 2002 when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance was in power.
CBI, in its chargesheet, alleged that former telecom secretary Shyamal Ghosh and former telecom minister Pramod Mahajan conspired with Bharti Airtel as well as two companies that are now owned by Vodafone to cause a loss of Rs.846.4 crore to the exchequer.
The investigating agency alleged that Ghosh and the late Mahajan colluded with these companies to hand over 2G spectrum up to 10 MHz (airwave units) above the permissible or contracted limit of 6.2 MHz. The duo, according to CBI’s version of events, tweaked rules and charged these mobile companies a flat 1% additional revenue share for airwaves beyond 6.2 MHz while according to rules, these firms should have been charged an additional 2% revenue share for airwaves beyond the 8 MHz mark, CBI said. Charged with Criminal Conspiracy “Investigation thus establishes that the aforesaid decision dated January 31, 2002 (for allocating additional spectrum) was taken in undue haste pursuant to the criminal conspiracy,” the CBI said in the chargesheet, according to people aware of the details. The accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy and misconduct under laws relating to prevention of corruption — the Prevention of Corruption Act as well as the Indian Penal Code (IPC) — according to court documents filed by the probe agency.
The CBI has not named any executive from these companies. No action has been suggested against Mahajan since he passed away in 2006, killed by his brother during a family altercation. The spokespersons of both Bharti and Vodafone declined comment.
This case is different from the multi-billion-dollar 2G spectrum scam, in which former telecom minister A Raja and 16 other accused, including lawmaker Kanimozhi and top executives of three telecom companies, are currently facing trial. Raja and the officials are accused of conspiring with corporate groups to grant mobile licences and airwaves to select companies in 2008 that the CBI claims were ineligible.
According to the CBI chargesheet, Ghosh “abused his official position and showed undue favour, causing an alleged loss of Rs. 846.44 crore to the government”. The investigating agency said this translated into an undue gain to the two telcos and added that it also brought about incidental gains to other mobile operators that got additional airwaves under the same policy. The probe body further alleged that Ghosh had failed to obtain comments of the then member (finance), who was the representative of the finance ministry, despite the issue having significant financial implications. Hutchison Max got spectrum for the Mumbai area while Sterling Cellular obtained airwaves in Delhi. Vodafone acquired Hutchison Whampoa’s stake in Hutchison-Essar in 2007 and renamed it Vodafone-Essar. Last year, Vodafone bought out Essar Group’s stake in the joint venture and named the company Vodafone India.
The CBI court is yet to take the charges on record and will take a call on admitting the case on January 14. If the case proceeds and the companies are found guilty, they stand to face penalties running into millions of dollars.